@matthewteague623 the way I see it, they're both heros. But, Wang has a reason to be a hero from the start and Jack finds a reason to be a hero in the end. He's still an idiot until then. LOL.
Wonderful movie! I think the lines "Hey Egg! How'd you get up there?" - "Wasn't easy!" may be among of the funniest dialogue in all screenwriting history.
But a sensible answer if you think about it. Their lives are still in danger and there is a good chance that a long-winded explanation would make the situation only more dangerous.
@@josephkrengel I'd say the concept and story are great, but the script does have some minor issues. Ty Franck had pointed them out when he and Wes Chatham were discussing the film in an episode of "Ty and That Guy", with Elias Toufexis as a guest.
"It's like Raiden from Mortal Kombat"".... That's because John Tobias (MK co-creator) was directly inspired by Lightning (the name of the character in Big Trouble in Little China) when designing Raiden. He has openly admitted it many times over the years. :P
@@raphaelperry8159 Yeah, the name and concept of Raiden was inspired by Raijin, the Japanese god of Thunder. But the specific character design of Raiden was basically ripped entirely from Big Trouble.
The exposition in this movie is so wonderful! It's as if they do everything with exposition that you're not supposed to do, but it works anyway. I think Jack Burton is basically just as confused as the audience, and the audience can identify with his bumbling for that reason.
I believe the idea of the film is what if the sidekick was the hero of the film. That's why Jack is so out of his depth, Wang is the hero and jack is the sidekick.
This is JC's homage to the madness of 1970s Shaw Bros movies that were made in Hong Kong. The maddest of these, The Battle Wizard, is very similar to this - utter random mayhem (it makes no difference whether you watch in Cantonese or with subtitles tbh, but getting off your face first helps!). I also love that Kurt D does this entire movie with a John Wayne voice, having previously done Escape From New York with a Clint Eastwood whisper. Maybe he could have had a career in the clubs doing impressions 😉
Yes, I'm glad people can still appreciate this movie for the pure fun that it is, but if you've got the references to all the things Carpenter is sending up here, the fun is multiplied to no end. That's why I think it's such a cult classic, it's almost a gift to movie nerds.
Great movie for a reaction; I don't think I'd call this Carpenter's best, but it sure is his most fun. Some might say They Live is equally fun, but that film does comment on heavy sociopolitical themes, whereas this is pure popcorn in the best way possible.
If you've seen an Asian man in an American movie from the 70s or 80s l, no matter what ethnicity that character was supposed to be, it was probably James Hong 😅 he's a fantastic actor and is in so many great films, including the Japanese man in "Airplane!".
There was a short-lived sit com in 2003 called Regular Joe. It starred Daniel Stern and Judd Hirsch. I got cast in a co-star role in one of the first episodes. I had just arrived at the soundstage where the series was filmed, and I was checking in with the Stage Manager. Suddenly I realized that I was standing next to James Hong. I had enjoyed his work every time I saw him, but I especially loved this film. A crew member was walking us to our dressing rooms when Mr. Hong turned to me and asked "We have worked together before?" I had to explain that no, I would definitely remember that. He cocked his head a bit and said "Then you have interviewed me before." He didn't wait for my answer, he just walked into his dressing room. That happened to me a lot. I have a very familiar face. That's a CB radio that Jack Burton is talking on (CB for Citizen's Band). Truckers used them to communicate.
This was the very first movie I saw on 'home' video. It was playing inside of (I think) a video store sub-section of a another store. Particularly the scene inside the brothel. They had it playing on a tiny 15 (or 13) inch CRT on the counter I think. We used to rent VCRs and a few tapes (people did not own the VHS/VCR hardware yet... this was back in like the 1987-1989 time period)...
I have seen this ridiculous and hilarious movie dozens of times...and today is the first time I ever noticed that Jack had lipstick all over his TEETH 29:55...not just his lips and face. ROFLMAO 😂
In the scene near the end when Egg drops the statue on Lightning's head (as he is climbing out of the hole), the statue hits him and he falls, there is some residual lightning that forms a Chinese character, before dissipating. The character means "Carpenter".
My favorite part of Big Trouble In Little China is that Jack isn't the actual main hero. Wang is actually the hero. Jack is the bumbling sidekick who is completely out of his depth and has virtually no clue what's going on at any given moment. He just serves as the audience perspective character. The whole thing is Wang's quest to save Miao Yin from Lo Pan. Jack just ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets dragged along for the ride.
Big Trouble in Little China was pitched to veteran filmmaker John Carpenter - as a big-budget adventure that could become the next Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Halloween director was just coming off of Starman, the acclaimed sci-fi love story that earned Jeff Bridges an Oscar nomination, and he was attracted to Big Trouble’s oddball mix of martial arts, monsters, and mysticism. Some members of the Chinese community were upset by what they regarded as the stereotypical depictions in a “white man’s product” and by the fact that hardly any nonwhite female characters talk in the film. Other viewers were confounded by the off-kilter plot and a leading man - Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton - who was more bumbling comic relief than conventional hero. Yet, like James Hong’s villainous sorcerer David Lo Pan, Big Trouble has amassed an army of followers who delight in its sheer, nonsensical weirdness. - E.W
@@RamblersInc yep, real movie with a HUGE star cast. The way movie was filmed is as if BB is a real super hero type that we all know and love (in the real world) and this is a movie about one of the times he saved the planet.
This is movie is brilliant in the way it mixes genres and you never know whether you are in an western action movie or an asian action movie. CB Radio was essentially radio chat rooms. Anyone could join in as long if they had a set. It was very popular with long distance truckers who warned each other about the weather, traffic accidents or police speed traps. They also used it for idle chatter when bored. They hit it big in pop culture after the release of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Convoy".
"- if I don't come back, call the president!". most people remember Kurt Russell as an action star, but he was also a very funny comedian. (I recommend the action "Soldier". Russell has almost no lines, but he doesn't need them ,to build the image of Todd 3465.)
To see Russell at about the same age and the same costume try his movie, "Overboard" with Goldie Hawn. Its lots of fun. For the no spoken character try "Silent Bob" in "Dogma". I don't think he ever says a word. For another John Carpenter/ Russell flick try "Escape from New York". It's just a goofy as this one.
Silent Bob has at least one moment of speaking in each movie, with chasing Amy being the longest. That said if they do that, they should do the whole askewnaverse.
This is a great movie. Kurt Russell is outstanding at comedy. If he had done nothing but work with John Carpenter, he would still have a better career than a lot of other actors.
The secret to this movie is simple and has two parts: 1. Jack Burton is the sidekick. 2. The audience is Jack Burton. You get the same explanation someone in Jack's position would get. Usually in such stories there is a new guy that gets explained everything (like Harry Potter). That's an accepted way to give the reader/audience the background to understand what's going on. But how realistic is that? Especially when the people that know some stuff, but don't know all or don't believe in the supernatural themselves because they think it's just myths and legends?
I've loved this movie ever since I was a kid. It's just so damn fun! If Big Trouble was a more serious movie, I'd agree that it would be better to stretch it out a bit rather than having all the high-paced exposition dialogue and everything going on at once, but since it's just a fun comedic love letter to Hong Kong cinema, IMO it works much better with them just rapidly throwing everything at you.
It's Carpenters version of of an Action-Adventure movie like Raiders of the Lost Arc, but because its carpenter its just much much weirder. Silent characters in film? This is a Carpenter special Michael Myers from Halloween.
This movie is just like those old adventure serials from the 30s and 40s. It reminds me of The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Very fast paced. Every episode is about 20 minutes long and there would a be a cliffhanger of some kind at the end of each. The plot just keeps moving forward without any clear direction as if the writers were making it up as they went along, as they often did, just so long as something exciting or perilous is happening about every 10 or 20 minutes.
"Who is he talking to?" Back in the day truckers, and some of us loons, had "CB Radios" (Citizens Band). They were just a general broadcast and anyone on that CB Channel (frequency) could listen in and respond (or not). (corrected a silly typo - Citizens' BanD not Bank, duh)
Man you guys have been on point with the movie choices lately! This is very high on my list of favorites (definitely doesn't beat out the first two aliens but it MIGHT take third place maybe) a couple fun little trivia bits about this one: -Originally the movie was going to be set in the 1880s instead of the 1980s when San Francisco actually did have a lot of violent gang activity in it's chinatown. Kurt Russel's character was going to be a cowboy who's horse gets stolen (a classic plot which makes a lot more sense than them carting off his big ass truck lol) but they changed directions with it deciding it would be better to start of the audience with something more familiar and mundane so that the supernatural stuff felt more intense. They ended keeping most of the plot points which leads to a lot of the unique goofiness of the movie, open and largescale gang warfare in broad daylight and them taking his truck which would just generally be a pain in the ass to steal and hide etc. -The fact that jack is a bumbling dumbass is an intentional subversion of the white saviour trope that is so common in these kinds of movies, and the movie is intentionally shot as if he WERE the main hero when it's clearly Wang (he beats the bad guys, it's his love interest who is danger first etc.) because the story is meant to be told through Jack's eyes and obviously he sees himself as the hero, as we all do in our own lives lol Great reaction lads! keep it up
One of the little snippets of scuttlebutt I've loved hearing about "Big Trouble in Little China" was that it allegedly started out as a planned sequel to "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (presented as something in the middle of an already-established series akin to pulp heroes like Doc Savage or The Shadow) but fell apart for reasons. Whether or not that's true, I always take the opportunity to hype up Buckaroo Banzai.
@RamblersInc long name, real movie. Peter Weller plays the title character, Jeff Goldblum plays one of his sidekicks, John Lithgow and Christopher Lloyd play the villains.
I think the new reporter was there to be the regular, sensible person, just for a neutral perspective. Jack Burton is the goofy round-eye sidekick, Wang is the tough young modern Chinese guy, Egg Shen is the weird old Chinese wizard, Gracie is the white woman with too much Chinatown inside knowledge. They needed one normal person that you can identify with, who reacts to the weirdness the way the audience member would, so you can identify with their reaction.
This type of martial arts movie was pretty much limited to Hong Kong productions at the time - this is way before The Matrix made it more mainstream. I saw it in the theater when it came out and was utterly blindsided by the vibe, content, and pace. Just so, so fun and funny and surprising in so many ways. Dunno if anyone mentioned it, but Carpenter and Russell openly talked (and laughed) on set about the idea that Jack Burton is actually the sidekick. It's partially a take on the idea that Russell is top billing, the biggest named actor in the cast, and is one of the only white actors in a mostly Asien cast. Of course people expect him to be the hero - but he's not. The opening section with Egg Shen and the lawyer was required by the studio to make Jack seem more like a hero - they literally just wanted one of the other main characters to assure audiences that Jack was the hero, even though clearly he's not. Other than the knife throw near the end, he's almost useless. Kurt Russell laughed about it on the DVD commentary.
If you had seen a lot of Hong Kong Period Supernatural Martial Arts movies, you'd feel right at home with this - this movie is a bridge from a popular Chinese genre and Hollywood. There had been a sequel planned, thus the ending, but sadly this didn't make it at the box office so the sequel didn't happen. I have watched a lot of Hong Kong movies that are the same genre so for me, this was totally great but for those who lack that background, it is rather weird. I suspect that if someone tried to make a similar bridge between a Bollywood movie and a Hollywood movie it would have that same level of strangeness. Oh, almost forgot: Jack is also a bridge, he is not so much the hero as he is the point of view to help lead a western audience into a world that is totally unfamiliar to them. Jack is a person totally out of his depth that the audience can relate to and he asks the questions the audience needs to have answered. Although at the end, he was the one who kills Lo Pan, and thus becomes the hero at the end, even though he was fairly useless during the story - but he WAS truly brave to keep going in the face of all of this stuff.
OMFG!!! I hate edited movies. peta or pita or what ever they are called got their underwear in a knot and complained about this movie. It's rhinoceros beetles wrestling that they cut out. I have the vhs as this is my all time favorite fantasy movie. I'll watch it again for the I've lost track of how many times I've seen it.
Russel acts like he is the main character whereas he is the comedic sidekick. A very cute movie. Hope you like it.
I mean, he *did* take down Lo Pan at the end. Wang didn't. Although, without Wang, he never wouldn't have made it even close to that far.
@matthewteague623 the way I see it, they're both heros. But, Wang has a reason to be a hero from the start and Jack finds a reason to be a hero in the end. He's still an idiot until then. LOL.
I can't remember another hero that's like this in a movie unless it's a parody.
Wonderful movie! I think the lines
"Hey Egg! How'd you get up there?" - "Wasn't easy!"
may be among of the funniest dialogue in all screenwriting history.
Yeah, the screenplay is a masterclass in itself.
One of my favorite lines too
But a sensible answer if you think about it. Their lives are still in danger and there is a good chance that a long-winded explanation would make the situation only more dangerous.
@@Dreamfox-df6bg
Indeed!
@@josephkrengel
I'd say the concept and story are great, but the script does have some minor issues. Ty Franck had pointed them out when he and Wes Chatham were discussing the film in an episode of "Ty and That Guy", with Elias Toufexis as a guest.
"It's like Raiden from Mortal Kombat"".... That's because John Tobias (MK co-creator) was directly inspired by Lightning (the name of the character in Big Trouble in Little China) when designing Raiden. He has openly admitted it many times over the years. :P
Ahhhh. Brilliant bit of trivia 👌
Hopefully he was also inspired by Raiden the thunder god from Japanese mythology.
@@raphaelperry8159 Yeah, the name and concept of Raiden was inspired by Raijin, the Japanese god of Thunder. But the specific character design of Raiden was basically ripped entirely from Big Trouble.
I never realized it before, but Kurt Russell is doing a John Wayne impression. Holy shit that makes it beer.
Lol... At first I thought you got autocorrected trying to type "better." But then I realized beer.
Schwarzenegger in "Stargate" and Eastwood in "Escape from New York." He mimics other actors.
He can pull of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and wyett Earp
"I never drive faster than I can see!"
🤣
The exposition in this movie is so wonderful! It's as if they do everything with exposition that you're not supposed to do, but it works anyway.
I think Jack Burton is basically just as confused as the audience, and the audience can identify with his bumbling for that reason.
Just as confused, 10x the confidence 😂
13:21 "Call the President."
the wink. 😉
😂
Absolutely not Shakespeare or high drama. But *Damn* it's a fun watch. 😀
Facts.
More Kurt Russell + John Carpenter in 'The Thing' and 'Escape From New York'. Also strong recommendation for 'They Live'.
We have The Thing and Escape From New York on our watchlist. Hopefully we get to them soon.
Everybody relax, I'm here.
🤣
that eye- ball, might be inspired by dungeons and dragons
Beholder, i guess
I believe the idea of the film is what if the sidekick was the hero of the film. That's why Jack is so out of his depth, Wang is the hero and jack is the sidekick.
Really unique concept....I think
This is JC's homage to the madness of 1970s Shaw Bros movies that were made in Hong Kong. The maddest of these, The Battle Wizard, is very similar to this - utter random mayhem (it makes no difference whether you watch in Cantonese or with subtitles tbh, but getting off your face first helps!).
I also love that Kurt D does this entire movie with a John Wayne voice, having previously done Escape From New York with a Clint Eastwood whisper. Maybe he could have had a career in the clubs doing impressions 😉
The Battle Wizard is a hilarious name for a movie 😂
We've got to get to some of these at some point.
Yes, I'm glad people can still appreciate this movie for the pure fun that it is, but if you've got the references to all the things Carpenter is sending up here, the fun is multiplied to no end.
That's why I think it's such a cult classic, it's almost a gift to movie nerds.
@@RamblersInc it's very short, and available in full on RUclips... You won't regret it! 😅
Great movie for a reaction; I don't think I'd call this Carpenter's best, but it sure is his most fun. Some might say They Live is equally fun, but that film does comment on heavy sociopolitical themes, whereas this is pure popcorn in the best way possible.
If you've seen an Asian man in an American movie from the 70s or 80s l, no matter what ethnicity that character was supposed to be, it was probably James Hong 😅 he's a fantastic actor and is in so many great films, including the Japanese man in "Airplane!".
Ohhhhh yeehhh. He WAS in Airplane. Great catch.
This reaction will appease my Emperor indeed!
😂
There was a short-lived sit com in 2003 called Regular Joe. It starred Daniel Stern and Judd Hirsch. I got cast in a co-star role in one of the first episodes. I had just arrived at the soundstage where the series was filmed, and I was checking in with the Stage Manager. Suddenly I realized that I was standing next to James Hong. I had enjoyed his work every time I saw him, but I especially loved this film. A crew member was walking us to our dressing rooms when Mr. Hong turned to me and asked "We have worked together before?" I had to explain that no, I would definitely remember that. He cocked his head a bit and said "Then you have interviewed me before." He didn't wait for my answer, he just walked into his dressing room. That happened to me a lot. I have a very familiar face.
That's a CB radio that Jack Burton is talking on (CB for Citizen's Band). Truckers used them to communicate.
It almost sounds like he caught you off guard and then just walked away 😂
@@RamblersInc That's right. I didn't know quite how to respond.
This was the very first movie I saw on 'home' video. It was playing inside of (I think) a video store sub-section of a another store. Particularly the scene inside the brothel. They had it playing on a tiny 15 (or 13) inch CRT on the counter I think. We used to rent VCRs and a few tapes (people did not own the VHS/VCR hardware yet... this was back in like the 1987-1989 time period)...
The game they're playing at the beginning is called Dominoes. It's basically gambling.
The domino game is Pai Gow. When they were using dice earlier in the scene, it was probably either Sic Bo or Si Wu Liu (Cee Lo).
"He looks like a rotten ball sack."
I mean... _this_ was the time to call someone a turnip. 🤔🤗
🤣True
One of my all time fav's. Pulling out my popcorn- excited to watch you lads dive into the fun
When you watch this movie you have to imagine you are a 10 year old boy watching it. Then you will understand.
😂ok NOW it makes sense.
When raw badassery and humor combines with legit storytelling, there's no competing with it.
💯
I like how Jack casually refers to David Lo Pan as "Dave". It's like they're best buddies.
😂
This film was John Carpenter's tribute to Chinese soap operas. That's why there's so much overt exposition.
I have to watch a Chinese soap opera now
Pure 80's magic!
Kurt has been on contract to Disney through the 1960's, like "Follow Me Boy's" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shous"
Very long and illustrious career.
I have seen this ridiculous and hilarious movie dozens of times...and today is the first time I ever noticed that Jack had lipstick all over his TEETH 29:55...not just his lips and face. ROFLMAO 😂
🤣
"I'm a reasonable guy, but I've just witnessed some very unreasonable things." 😂
😂
In the scene near the end when Egg drops the statue on Lightning's head (as he is climbing out of the hole), the statue hits him and he falls, there is some residual lightning that forms a Chinese character, before dissipating. The character means "Carpenter".
"He's got a telephone" lmao! Well said mate.
😂
My favorite part of Big Trouble In Little China is that Jack isn't the actual main hero.
Wang is actually the hero. Jack is the bumbling sidekick who is completely out of his depth and has virtually no clue what's going on at any given moment. He just serves as the audience perspective character.
The whole thing is Wang's quest to save Miao Yin from Lo Pan. Jack just ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets dragged along for the ride.
Big Trouble in Little China was pitched to veteran filmmaker John Carpenter - as a big-budget adventure that could become the next Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Halloween director was just coming off of Starman, the acclaimed sci-fi love story that earned Jeff Bridges an Oscar nomination, and he was attracted to Big Trouble’s oddball mix of martial arts, monsters, and mysticism. Some members of the Chinese community were upset by what they regarded as the stereotypical depictions in a “white man’s product” and by the fact that hardly any nonwhite female characters talk in the film. Other viewers were confounded by the off-kilter plot and a leading man - Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton - who was more bumbling comic relief than conventional hero. Yet, like James Hong’s villainous sorcerer David Lo Pan, Big Trouble has amassed an army of followers who delight in its sheer, nonsensical weirdness. - E.W
I can see why it worked and didn't work. If only we got a hilarious franchise.
5:01 - he's on a CB. It's free over the air and truck drivers talk to each other. Citizen Band Radio Frequency.
Amplitude modulation around 27Mhz with some options for single side band for better distance.
It is time to check out Buckaroo Banzai (same script writer)
I had to search it to see if that was a real name 😂
@@RamblersInc yep, real movie with a HUGE star cast.
The way movie was filmed is as if BB is a real super hero type that we all know and love (in the real world) and this is a movie about one of the times he saved the planet.
This is movie is brilliant in the way it mixes genres and you never know whether you are in an western action movie or an asian action movie.
CB Radio was essentially radio chat rooms. Anyone could join in as long if they had a set. It was very popular with long distance truckers who warned each other about the weather, traffic accidents or police speed traps. They also used it for idle chatter when bored. They hit it big in pop culture after the release of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Convoy".
This is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. I have probably watched it over 100 times.
"- if I don't come back, call the president!". most people remember Kurt Russell as an action star, but he was also a very funny comedian. (I recommend the action "Soldier". Russell has almost no lines, but he doesn't need them ,to build the image of Todd 3465.)
If you liked this try Buckaroo Banzai
To see Russell at about the same age and the same costume try his movie, "Overboard" with Goldie Hawn. Its lots of fun. For the no spoken character try "Silent Bob" in "Dogma". I don't think he ever says a word. For another John Carpenter/ Russell flick try "Escape from New York". It's just a goofy as this one.
"No ticket."
@@Kris-wp3fm I missed that one.
Silent Bob has at least one moment of speaking in each movie, with chasing Amy being the longest. That said if they do that, they should do the whole askewnaverse.
The 2 women, a reporter/journalist and a lawyer. Of course they talk a lot.😂
😂
Saw this in the theater with a buddy. Laughed our a$$es off.
This is a great movie. Kurt Russell is outstanding at comedy. If he had done nothing but work with John Carpenter, he would still have a better career than a lot of other actors.
The secret to this movie is simple and has two parts:
1. Jack Burton is the sidekick.
2. The audience is Jack Burton. You get the same explanation someone in Jack's position would get. Usually in such stories there is a new guy that gets explained everything (like Harry Potter). That's an accepted way to give the reader/audience the background to understand what's going on. But how realistic is that? Especially when the people that know some stuff, but don't know all or don't believe in the supernatural themselves because they think it's just myths and legends?
And every time he does get the explanation, he's like "ok...lets go with that then" 😂
Jack is such a great Sidekick!
Such a fantastic movie!
Many of the characters were just there to give an exposition lore dump 🤣
"exposition lore dump" - perfectly put 👌
I've loved this movie ever since I was a kid. It's just so damn fun! If Big Trouble was a more serious movie, I'd agree that it would be better to stretch it out a bit rather than having all the high-paced exposition dialogue and everything going on at once, but since it's just a fun comedic love letter to Hong Kong cinema, IMO it works much better with them just rapidly throwing everything at you.
Yeh fair point. It's part of the comedic effect.
Before this and Escape from New York (also a John Carpenter film), Kurt Russell was known for starring in safe, family friendly, Disney movies 😯😯😯
"Why are they kidapping ... ? It doesn't make any sense. Really weird." That's just the beginning of weird.
It's Carpenters version of of an Action-Adventure movie like Raiders of the Lost Arc, but because its carpenter its just much much weirder. Silent characters in film? This is a Carpenter special Michael Myers from Halloween.
Weirder is putting it lightly.
This movie is just like those old adventure serials from the 30s and 40s. It reminds me of The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Very fast paced. Every episode is about 20 minutes long and there would a be a cliffhanger of some kind at the end of each. The plot just keeps moving forward without any clear direction as if the writers were making it up as they went along, as they often did, just so long as something exciting or perilous is happening about every 10 or 20 minutes.
There's a fan theory that Wang is the fourth storm "wind". Keep that in mind on a second watch 🤟😎
He's talking on a CB radio. Very 80s thing. Social media before there was social media.
"Who is he talking to?" Back in the day truckers, and some of us loons, had "CB Radios" (Citizens Band). They were just a general broadcast and anyone on that CB Channel (frequency) could listen in and respond (or not). (corrected a silly typo - Citizens' BanD not Bank, duh)
It's all in the re-actions.
badum dum tshhh🥁😂
Man you guys have been on point with the movie choices lately! This is very high on my list of favorites (definitely doesn't beat out the first two aliens but it MIGHT take third place maybe) a couple fun little trivia bits about this one:
-Originally the movie was going to be set in the 1880s instead of the 1980s when San Francisco actually did have a lot of violent gang activity in it's chinatown. Kurt Russel's character was going to be a cowboy who's horse gets stolen (a classic plot which makes a lot more sense than them carting off his big ass truck lol) but they changed directions with it deciding it would be better to start of the audience with something more familiar and mundane so that the supernatural stuff felt more intense. They ended keeping most of the plot points which leads to a lot of the unique goofiness of the movie, open and largescale gang warfare in broad daylight and them taking his truck which would just generally be a pain in the ass to steal and hide etc.
-The fact that jack is a bumbling dumbass is an intentional subversion of the white saviour trope that is so common in these kinds of movies, and the movie is intentionally shot as if he WERE the main hero when it's clearly Wang (he beats the bad guys, it's his love interest who is danger first etc.) because the story is meant to be told through Jack's eyes and obviously he sees himself as the hero, as we all do in our own lives lol
Great reaction lads! keep it up
I kind of want to see the alternate 1880's version now.
One of the little snippets of scuttlebutt I've loved hearing about "Big Trouble in Little China" was that it allegedly started out as a planned sequel to "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (presented as something in the middle of an already-established series akin to pulp heroes like Doc Savage or The Shadow) but fell apart for reasons.
Whether or not that's true, I always take the opportunity to hype up Buckaroo Banzai.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - I had to read this 3 times to make sense of it 😂
@RamblersInc long name, real movie. Peter Weller plays the title character, Jeff Goldblum plays one of his sidekicks, John Lithgow and Christopher Lloyd play the villains.
Oh wow. That's an all star cast. Added to the watchlist 👍
James Wong in his late 90s he looks like lo pan in real time
🤣savage
@@RamblersInc thats method acting
Kurt Russell been acting since the 60s
Super film!
I think the new reporter was there to be the regular, sensible person, just for a neutral perspective. Jack Burton is the goofy round-eye sidekick, Wang is the tough young modern Chinese guy, Egg Shen is the weird old Chinese wizard, Gracie is the white woman with too much Chinatown inside knowledge. They needed one normal person that you can identify with, who reacts to the weirdness the way the audience member would, so you can identify with their reaction.
...with a mish mash of villains including a meatball made of eyes.
This type of martial arts movie was pretty much limited to Hong Kong productions at the time - this is way before The Matrix made it more mainstream. I saw it in the theater when it came out and was utterly blindsided by the vibe, content, and pace. Just so, so fun and funny and surprising in so many ways.
Dunno if anyone mentioned it, but Carpenter and Russell openly talked (and laughed) on set about the idea that Jack Burton is actually the sidekick. It's partially a take on the idea that Russell is top billing, the biggest named actor in the cast, and is one of the only white actors in a mostly Asien cast. Of course people expect him to be the hero - but he's not.
The opening section with Egg Shen and the lawyer was required by the studio to make Jack seem more like a hero - they literally just wanted one of the other main characters to assure audiences that Jack was the hero, even though clearly he's not. Other than the knife throw near the end, he's almost useless. Kurt Russell laughed about it on the DVD commentary.
It's a brilliant unique concept. I can't think of any other sidekick protagonists.
The best unaware sidekick movie; ever.
we need to find more unaware sidekick movies
If you had seen a lot of Hong Kong Period Supernatural Martial Arts movies, you'd feel right at home with this - this movie is a bridge from a popular Chinese genre and Hollywood. There had been a sequel planned, thus the ending, but sadly this didn't make it at the box office so the sequel didn't happen.
I have watched a lot of Hong Kong movies that are the same genre so for me, this was totally great but for those who lack that background, it is rather weird.
I suspect that if someone tried to make a similar bridge between a Bollywood movie and a Hollywood movie it would have that same level of strangeness.
Oh, almost forgot: Jack is also a bridge, he is not so much the hero as he is the point of view to help lead a western audience into a world that is totally unfamiliar to them. Jack is a person totally out of his depth that the audience can relate to and he asks the questions the audience needs to have answered. Although at the end, he was the one who kills Lo Pan, and thus becomes the hero at the end, even though he was fairly useless during the story - but he WAS truly brave to keep going in the face of all of this stuff.
Could've done with more Jack Burton in other countries lol.
@@RamblersInc Personally, I loved him just as he was.
Four words..... Gloriously Bat-Shit Crazy!!!!
Perfect tag line
The inspiration for mortal combat
I can see it.
Love this movie so much i own the board game
No way they made a board game 😂. That must have been hilarious and a lot of fun
Now y'all need to learn why they call Kim cattrel lassie, in porkys
They not ready😂
@cloveless18 come on same guy directed a christmas story how bad can it be
Unfortunately young woman have often been kidnapped from airports and sold into the trade. So it's not really that weird.
But that obvious without law enforcement interfering INSIDE the airport ? That was super bold.
You just need to lean into the cheese of this, which you did 🤟😎
lol we got there eventually
Too bad they never had a Jack Burton sequel.
Shame. I could see a whole Jack Burton franchise.
Too much MSG ;-)
🤣🤣🤣
First time piercing someone with your needle of love?
🤣🤣🤣🤣 exactly what needle are we talking about here ?
OMFG!!! I hate edited movies. peta or pita or what ever they are called got their underwear in a knot and complained about this movie. It's rhinoceros beetles wrestling that they cut out. I have the vhs as this is my all time favorite fantasy movie. I'll watch it again for the I've lost track of how many times I've seen it.
Really? But...they wrestle in real life. Why cut it out?
Your editing has a lot to be improved on. You missed many of the best and funniest parts of the movie. But thanks for trying.
Sorry about that.